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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Dr. Mantena's Special - Gongura Chutney

Today’s special in Dr. Mantena’s Kitchen is “Gongura Pacchadi.”
It is one of the favorite dishes of Andhra people. It’s nutritious, healthy, sour,
spicy, pungent and irresistible in taste.

I have come across people who can’t resist themselves
from eating Gongura Chutney and end up scratching their skin, suffer from
stomach ache, high blood pressure and gas trouble. I guess many of you might
have faced similar problem with Gongura Chutney. And finally the blame goes to
Gongura or Sorrel Leaves. Actually none of these problems are the result of Sorrel
Leaves but the problem is due to the way it is often made.

Since the Sorrel Leaves is quite sour in taste people
add plenty of salt in order to reduce the sourness. Sorrel Leaves is already
rich in sodium by nature and addition of salt in large quantity leads to high
blood pressure and the volume of oil added to it in order to preserve for long,
leads to itching and inflammation of skin and stomach ache due to release of
additional gases and enzymes to digest it.

As you are all aware that Dr. Mantena’s kitchen offers
you the recipes that are harmless to your health and rich in nutrition. Unlike
the traditional method of making Gongura Pacchadi we are about to make it in a
healthy, harmless and nutritious manner keeping the taste of the chutney alive.
Let me remind you that we don’t use the seven tastes that lead to diseases
which are salt, sugar, ghee, oil, tamarind, red chili powder and masalas in our
recipes. We try to replace all these tastes with natural substitutes available
in the market. For example we try to
choose the food that is naturally rich in sodium to replace the salt. Sorrel
Leaves and cauliflower stems in this recipe are such things for example. Honey
is often replaced for sugar. Lemon, raw mango etc. is replaced for tamarind,
green chilies for spice instead of red chili powder and curry powder for
masalas etc.

Gongura Pacchadi is very easy to make and do not
consume much time to cook. Let me remind you that unlike the regular Gongura
Pacchadi it is not for storing and should be used instantly. Since it is not
soaked in oil as it is often done to preserve it from fungus, it is advisable
to use instantly. Now let us go into the details of preparing Gongura Pacchadi
in a healthy way.

Ingredients:

1. Sorrel Leaves -10 bunches

2. Peanuts - 1 cup

3. Sesame seeds - ½ cup

4. roasted chick pea gram (putana) - 1
cup

5. Cauliflower stem - 10-15
nos.

6. Green chilies - 10 nos.

7. Yogurt - 1 Cup

Method:

1. Rinse the Sorrel Leaves well in water and keep it
aside in a bowl.

2. Chop Cauliflower stems into small pieces, rinse and
keep it aside.

3. Roast peanuts, sesame seeds and grind them separately
in a mixer grinder one after the other along with putana and keep it in a bowl.

4. Now light on the stove and cook the cauliflower
stems and Sorrel Leaves for 10 minutes in a pan covered with lid. Then add
yogurt and cook till the water is completely evaporated from it. Then put off
the flame and let it cool down for some time. Now grind it into paste in a
mixer grinder.

5. Now mix this paste with the peanut, sesame and
putana powder and saute it well. The dish is now ready to serve.

You can serve this chutney with phulkas and also alongside
brown rice and dall.

I hope you liked this
update. Keep watching the space for more updates.